Documentation of a case of tuberculosis in Pre-Columbian America.

Abstract

A case of tuberculosis in a child from the Nazca culture of southern Peru, a culture dated at approximately 700 A.D., is described. There was evidence of Pott’s disease with a psoas abscess, tuberculosis of the lung, pleura, liver, and right kidney with demonstrable acid-fast organisms. Pericarditis was also present, but no bacilli could be demonstrated.